cottage garden | The Wistful Gardener

The front garden is starting to show results from the tool breaking efforts of earlier this year.

It is hard to believe just a three months ago I was battling crocosmia and pulling up the last of the heather, which had smothered everything. The windswept front garden was pretty dull and really not a priority until I moved my desk and found myself looking at it all day, every day.

Staring at an uninspiring patch all day was clearly the gardening motivation I required. And now the garden is emerging as a pretty, small cottage garden with its own personality.

Orange and red lillies are emerging, contrasting with purple lavender, alliums, blue iris, yellow geum and yellow poppies. Green and yellow foliage, Alchemilla Mollis and the black elder are making a beautiful back drop.

I must admit that the overall effect is better than I could have hoped for, but is perhaps largely accidental. With the heather out, I didn’t really know what would come through and I while I had a mental plan for the new planting I put in, I had no idea what would come through from self-seedlings or previous year’s bulbs and plants.

Seeing it come together has helped me get a sense of where to go next with the garden. A little more dark foliage (I’ve put a few dahlia tubers in); some more bright yellows/oranges (perhaps I’ll move an Azalea from a pot into the ground). A bold smattering of blue, purple and red will also work. But the green is really holding it together, so I don’t want to lose that. As a whole, the garden is more herbaceous than before, so it will not look so good in winter, but maybe I can use winter bedding to fix that.

This weekend I shall be sure to take more cuttings from the Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace‘ and distribute them to friends and neighbours. Right now the plant is looking so impressive, it is stopping passers by in the street. Yesterday two tourists stopped and took a photo of it and today a lady couldn’t resist touching and smelling it. I have got one strong cutting from last year and a few softwood cuttings going from this year, but think there is local demand for more!

The picture below is a little taste of what is in full bloom at the moment – and no heather to be seen!